Lawsuit settled in Lincoln U. voting flap

Chester County commissioners have settled a federal lawsuit that had accused them of stifling voting during the 2008 presidential election, agreeing to move a polling place in Lower Oxford to the campus of Lincoln University.

The settlement, announced Tuesday, puts an end to a dispute that saw students at the historically black university and some township residents pitted against the two Republican commissioners over where the best place for voting would be in Lower Oxford East precinct.

Voters will now report to the university's gymnasium, the site that had been suggested prior to the 2008 general election, when hundreds of voters waited as long as six to eight hours - in the rain at times -- to cast their ballots.

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"Twice, the county commissioners refused to move the polling place to Lincoln because they wanted to deter African American students from voting," said attorney Michael Churchill of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, part of the legal team that represented the five plaintiffs in the case - two Lincoln students and three township residents.

"Now, in the face of a lawsuit they have decided to stop interfering with this basic American right," Churchill said. "But it is tragic that so many people were unable to vote or were inconvenienced from voting by the actions of the commissioners. We are delighted that the situation as been fixed."

"The voting process in the 2008 presidential election was a frustrating and time consuming process. With the changes coming, residents and students will have adequate facilities and a better experience," said Wanda Havelow of Lower Oxford, one of the plaintiffs in the suit who waited six hours in the rain to vote.

In a press release issued by the county, officials said they had "adamantly denied plaintiffs' allegations throughout the litigation" and that the county Board of Elections - namely, the three commissioners - "worked with (the) plaintiffs to resolve cooperatively the current lawsuit and avoid the costs associated with protracted litigation."

However, Commissioner Kathi Cozzone, the board's lone Democrat and who supported the polling place move to Lincoln, pointedly said that the litigation could have been avoided.

"If my colleagues had sided with me on this issue at either meeting, we could have saved time and taxpayer money," she said in a prepared statement.

The issue of the place where Lincoln students would cast their votes first arose in September 2008, when former Democratic Commissioner Patrick O'Donnell and Democratic Party solicitor John Carnes presented a petition on behalf of students and residents of Lower Oxford East precinct to move the polls from the small, cramped, and potentially dangerous Lincoln Village Community Center to the larger, more accessible Manuel Rivera Hall.

The pair noted at the time the possibility of an enormous turnout that November, given the presence on the ticket of the first black presidential candidate and the first female Republican vice presidential candidate. They cited problems that voters had encountered at the community center during the presidential primary earlier that year.

Commissioners Carol Aichele and Terence Farrell - who coincidentally serves as GOP committeeman for the precinct - voted against the proposal. Aichele said she did so because of a perceived problem with handicapped access to the Rivera gymnasium, while Farrell maintained that the community center could handle the voters. Cozzone voted in favor of the proposed move.

Election turnout in November was far in excess of what it had ever been before in the precinct, and completely overwhelmed the polling place staff. Voters stood in line for hours on end, as election officials struggled with inadequate voter lists and Republican officials contested voter after voter. The line of expectant voters wound through the small parking lot, and those waiting sat through drenching rain - remaining in line long after the polls had officially close at 8 p.m.

Students and residents then tried again to get the commissioners to change the polling place to the Lincoln campus in April 2009, but were again rebuffed by the Republican commissioners, Aichele and Farrell. At the time, however, the two voted to move the polling place from the community center to the Lower Oxford Township road maintenance garage - even though it was a similar size as the community center.

The county's other two large universities, West Chester and Immaculata, both have on-campus polling places.

In a statement on Tuesday, Chairwoman Carol Aichele said she had decided to support moving the polling place to Lincoln because concerns she had about handicapped accessibility at the gymnasium had been answered.

"At the time we were first asked to consider the move, there was no way for handicapped individuals to negotiate the stairs and no drive-in access was available," she said in a written statement. "I am very glad that this was resolved."

Churchill, however, countered that there had never been realistic concerns about handicapped accessibility at the gymnasium, and that Aichele's questions had been adequately answered by O'Donnell at the meeting in April 2009, the second time the commissioners refused to move the polling place to Lincoln.

"It is indisputable that there were no handicapped problems at the gymnasium," he said. "In 2009, (Aichele) never mentioned handicapped accessibility as being an issue after O'Donnell addressed the issue."

On his behalf, Farrell said Tuesday that he had voted against the move to Lincoln because he "had received numerous comments from voters within the precinct who said they did not feel comfortable going to the proposed campus site." He changed his mind, he said, because the school had installed additional lighting at the gym.,

although polling places are open in Chester County from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m., mostly daylight hours.

(Additionally, Lincoln campus police report that from 2006 to 2008, there were only nine assaults on Lincoln's campus, three of them in a dormitory. During the same period, West Chester University reported seven incidents.)

"They never stated their reasons for opposing (a proposed move to) Lincoln," Churchill said Tuesday of the April 2009 vote "They just refused to do it. I don't know why, but I do know its effect was: It made it more difficult for African Americans to vote. They were playing politics with the people's right to vote."

The lawsuit against the county, charging voting discrimination, was filed in January.

Churchill said that as part of the settlement, the county Office of Voters Services would be directed to make sure that the Lower Oxford east polling place be given the same resources as other polling places across the county, including updated voter lists.

Joel Frank, a West Chester attorney with the firm of Lamb McErlane that represented the county in the suit, said that provision had already been met. The Office of Voters Services has always given the same level of support to Lower Oxford East as any other precinct. "This one election was an aberration that hadn't occurred before, or since," he said.

The county also requested, and the plaintiffs agreed, to move the boundaries for the precinct to reduce its size while not isolating Lincoln students from other voters. Frank said that was in the works, with a hearing on the new boundaries set for Sept. 8 in front of President Judge James P. MacElree II.

The settlement also calls for the county to pay attorney fees for the plaintiffs' lawyers, including himself, three attorneys from the firm of DLA Piper, two attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union, and Marian Schneider, a Chester County attorney.

Cozzone issued a statement hailing the settlement, but pointing out that the suit could have been avoided.

"When all was said and done, the right resolution to the issue of Lower Oxford East's polling place was reached. The recent settlement will allow all the precinct's residents to vote in a location with good parking, plenty of space and a safe place to wait in line," she said.

However, she added that, "while I am pleased with the settlement, I would be remiss if I did not point out that this outcome was available to the County before legal action was taken, and taxpayer money was spent," she added. "

In addition to being responsible for the plaintiffs' attorney fees, the county will have to pay for its own legal counsel since it hired the Lamb McErlane firm as its representative rather than relying on the county Solicitor's Office. Frank said that he did not know the amount of the firm's fee, but that the majority of the cost would be borne by the county's insurance carrier.

Golden English of Lower Oxford, another of the plaintiffs, who had taken the day off from work to vote in the 2008 presidential election but had to leave before casting a ballot to care for his granddaughter, said the settlement was a victory for the common voter.

"All people in this country have a chance to voice their opinion through the vote. Government with all of it responsibilities to the people should never demonstrate such little regard for the process that give people a sense of being free to have their voices heard," he said.